Steinitz added: “If important reserves are discovered in Israel and Egypt, or even in Egypt, this could justify the construction of a long pipeline to Greece.”

“At first we estimated that this would cost 15 billion dollars, which is prohibitive. Now new estimates reduce this to around seven billion (dollars),” he said.

At a three-way summit in Nicosia last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel, Greece and Cyprus would form a committee to study plans to build a pipeline between Israel and Cyprus and on to Greece.

Israel has been trying to extract offshore gas since the discovery of the Tamar and Leviathan fields in 2009 and 2010.

Production has begun in Tamar, but the far larger Leviathan has been hit by a series of delays and anti-trust litigation in Israel.

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